This time there were no nightmares.
On the contrary, Soyo slept exceptionally sweetly.
She had a beautiful dream that kept the corners of her mouth steadily turned up even as she woke.
In the dream she finally got to know Noshiro Chiose, moved into her home, became her family and her companion, and in the end the two of them fulfilled the vow they'd once made—to stay by each other's side for a lifetime.
But a dream is only a dream, and one always wakes from it.
When the noon sunlight quietly spilled into the room through the gap between the glass and the curtains, Soyo's delicate eyelashes trembled a few times.
Then she snapped her eyes open. The old, heavy grief seemed to have vanished, and Soyo felt only that her body was light and floating.
"Mmm..."
"An unfamiliar ceiling."
Wait! Where is this again? It's Chiose's place! What on earth did I do yesterday?
Soyo sat up faster than she could burst into tears—one hand braced against the sheets, the other steadying her head. Now that it had rested, her brain began to whir back into motion.
Yesterday she'd waited on the street for Chiose the whole day, and she really had staked her out and caught her, and in the end Chiose had even taken her home, where she'd poured out her woes the whole night long... ahh...
"First impression—isn't it completely ruined now?"
The corners of her mouth twitched. Soyo felt delighted, and yet a bashful expression surfaced on her face all the same.
So embarrassing, she—
"At least my heart doesn't ache the way it did when I woke from the dream. That's already a huge improvement."
Her throat was so dry.
These past few days of crying had drained the water right out of Soyo's body; she felt she was only one wrapping of gauze away from becoming a mummy.
If only there were water right now, right now...
"Hm?"
Glancing to the side, she found there really was a glass of water and a plate of fruit on the nightstand beside her.
Was there even a little heart-shaped tag? Honestly—why be this kind to a stranger she'd known for less than a day?
Draining the water in one go, Soyo slowly tilted back and lay down again, savoring the sensation of being wrapped in Chiose's scent, utterly unwilling to wake.
Wouldn't it be nice to keep being enveloped in this lovely fragrance of wild lilies? Why get up—to face the cruel real world?
What time was it now? She hadn't even thought about it.
Should she go to school? Forget it... she'd skipped yesterday anyway, so one more day wouldn't hurt.
Check her phone to see if anyone had sent new messages? Ugh, who would ever reach out to her on a normal day?
Well, there were some—like her club mates asking her to come rehearse.
Heh heh...
"Dame yo~ today's Soyo doesn't want to do a single thing."
Chiose had probably already left for school, so she might as well just keep sleeping and wait until the other girl came home.
Her little feet stopped their restless kicking. Though the bedding at Little Chiose's home wasn't as expensive or high-end as at Soyo's own house, it put Soyo more at ease.
This sense of peace was something no pillow or sheet, at any price, could ever give.
This was the peace that belonged uniquely to Noshiro Chiose.
"Looks like I can't invite Little Tomo and Taki over today... I guess it'll have to be another day."
Chiose propped up her head with one hand, thinking quietly.
At the very least, it would have to wait until the weekend—until Soyo left her place.
No, no—better to ask Tomori and Little Taki what they thought. If they wanted to come, it wasn't as if there were no way to make it work.
Anyway... it wasn't like she'd done anything to feel guilty about! What was there to be afraid of!
During the lunch break, Chiose hung up her call with Kyoumoto. Usually, whenever class got boring, Chiose would slip in her Bluetooth earbuds and secretly talk on the phone with Kyoumoto.
They wouldn't chat—they simply wanted to hear each other breathing, that was all.
For the Noshiro and Haizuka sisters, this was pure bliss.
It was now the first afternoon period. Chiose listened absent-mindedly to the lecture; after all, she'd mastered the material in front of her long ago in the Simulation.
Every so often she'd use her heels to kick off her shoes and, with her little feet wrapped in dark green crew socks, tickle Tomo-Tomo's calves.
Every time she saw Takamatsu Tomori give a jolt and tense her back in reaction, Chiose couldn't help but laugh out loud.
This was the whole point of her coming to school. Her studying was already finished; the only true path was spending time with Tomo-Tomo and enjoying her youthful everyday life.
Chiose and Tomori's daily class routine was made up entirely of Chiose teasing Little Tomo over and over again.
....
Afternoon. The long-empty house.
"Little Soyo! I'm home! Oh—oops, I forgot she's still at school."
Having pried herself free from work, Ms. Nagasaki dragged her weary body back to her unfamiliar house.
The truth was, over these years she'd spent more nights sleeping at the office; next most familiar were probably the hotels she stayed in on business trips.
Compared to this—her real home—the outside world seemed to be where she truly belonged... a terrifying thought, isn't it? But subconsciously, that was how she'd come to feel.
"I should have spent more time with my daughter, sigh."
These past few days she'd had so many bizarre, surreal dreams, and the things in them left Ms. Nagasaki heartbroken beyond words.
There was nothing she could do to change what had happened in the dreams. In reality, she sat in the middle of an empty, hollow room, her thoughts drifting outward for a while.
"Little Soyo probably still resents me a little, doesn't she."
"From now on I need to spend more time with her... This child never tells her mother when she's hurting. Mommy even mistook your gritting it out for maturity."
Ms. Nagasaki wiped away her tears and went upstairs, back to her room.
"When she was little, I ruined her teddy bear in the wash," she murmured to herself, as though speaking to the birds at the far edge of the sky. "I'm so clumsy—who knows how long it'll take me to stitch it back up."
In the dream, she seemed to have given the teddy bear to her granddaughter. Mm... that day had been a morning after she'd retired, when Ms. Nagasaki—who had spent years piecing the teddy bear together, on and off in her free time—finally completed her handiwork.
Only, sadly, Little Soyo had long since grown up by then, and that teddy bear had been claimed away by Little Chiose.
"Sigh, Chiose..."
That girl—just who on earth was she?
Her colleague was her, her best friend was her, her granddaughter was her, and the one who confessed to her was her too... the little sun of her old age was her, and the fine assistant of her youth was her as well.
She really did seem to have become a dark cloud looming over the entire Nagasaki household.
"The most infuriating part is, I searched the whole company from top to bottom and there was no sign of you! Just where on earth are you..."
Ms. Nagasaki swung her legs on the bed like a little child, thinking that if Little Soyo were home, she'd surely nag her for climbing into bed without a bath first.
Little Soyo was just like that—like a mother... even though Little Soyo was the one who needed a mother's love the most.
"Let me ask Soyo when she's coming home. Studying together at a classmate's place? She really has grown up."
When her daughter came home, she'd make Soyo the new dish she'd just learned!
"What was that dish called again—vegetable macaroni and samgyetang, right? I'm not skilled at it yet, but in the first dream Little Soyo just loved eating it."
Her head buried in the pillow, Nagasaki only knew that in reality Soyo loved vegetable macaroni; as for the samgyetang...
"Some kind of dream specialty, I suppose—whatever, sleep first!"
After working so hard for so long, it really was time to rest properly for a while.
And that's how things were.
P.S. Third update! I'll catch up on my drafts over the weekend and keep posting extra chapters next week—I've been so busy lately~ Everyone get some rest early, love!
Py! A shout-out to the cutest Shuishui's book!
[Tangerine; Ai-All (harem); Superpower Battle of Wits]
Chihaya Anon becomes an out-of-control esper because of a disaster and is forced to drop out of school in England and return to Tokyo, planning to live as an ordinary person.
But reality won't allow it.
What she knows: she's been surrounded by the old remnants of the former hero squad Crychic, who've formed a new team.
What she doesn't know: her five close friends are actually members of the ultra-dangerous esper crime organization Ave Mujica.
Tomori keeps crying out that she wants to be with her for a lifetime.
Taki wears a sour face every single day, as if holding a grudge.
Her most-oshi'd streamer, dear Nyamu, and her beloved idol Misumi Uika invite her out on dates one after another.
Sakiko Togawa, wrapped in countless mysteries, lives together with her—making bentos by day and being her arch-nemesis by night.
Add to that Gotou Hitori, who idolizes her, and Iseri Nina, who inexplicably has a crush on her...
Oh right—and every so often she also has to team up with everyone from MyGO!!!! to battle against Ave Mujica.
Sigh, in this swirling chaos, only Nagasaki Soyo is gentle and considerate—the one and only harbor that can soothe my soul...
Huh? Why did Soyo ignore me just now when I said hi?
Hm? What do you mean when you say I'm not needed?
Hey, don't scare me like that!
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